The major goal of this project is the development of reliable and versatile methods for the determination of multiple elements in biological samples. Our plan for achieving this goal is to couple an echelle grating spectrometer-vidicon detection system with flame and flameless atomizers for line souce and continuous source atomic absorption spectroscopy. The two dimensional character of the echelle spectral display coupled with the two dimensional array of detectors in the vidicon should provide both good spectral resolution and broad spectral range in a very compact system and the use of multielement hollow cathode lamps and/or xenon and hydrogen discharge continuous sources should provide access to several elements simultaneously. The combination of flame and flameless atomizers should cover the wide dynamic range required for biological samples. When the instrument system is operational, it will be used to develop separation procedures to isolate elements into interference-free groups, the members of which can be determined simultaneously. The resulting system and procedures should be applicable to problems related to fundamental biochemistry, disorders such as cancer, cardiovascular failures and infectious diseases, occupational and environmental problems and clinical diagnosis. It is anticipated that the simplicity and versatility of the proposed system will encourarge scientists in both fundamental and applied areas to make more extensive use of multielement information than is the case now.